With the aging trend and the improvement of people's living standards, the proportion of diabetic patients has shown an increasing trend. A considerable number of patients in existing therapies need to inject insulin and other drugs every day to maintain their blood sugar stability. However, this also has an important problem. Patients' injections and individual differences can lead to hypoglycemia. This symptom can even be life-threatening when it is severe. Recently, researchers from the University of Toronto in Canada have developed a new type of device designed to eliminate this problem.

The device looks like a skin patch, and the micro-injector attached to it can detect the patient's blood glucose concentration in real time. When the blood glucose concentration is too low, the device can automatically input glucose or other hormone drugs into the patient quickly. Regulate blood sugar. The researchers said the device would solve the problem of having to wait a few hours before a diabetic patient develops hypoglycemia to adjust it to normal levels. In addition, the device can also monitor the blood sugar fluctuations of the patient's diet or exercise and thereby greatly improve the patient's quality of life.

Hypoglycemia refers to an adult's fasting blood glucose concentration of less than 2.8 mmol/L. Hypoglycemia can be diagnosed in patients with diabetes with a blood glucose level of ≤3.9 mmol/L. Hypoglycemia is a syndrome caused by a group of multiple causes of venous plasma glucose (abbreviated as blood glucose), clinically characterized by sympathetic excitation and brain cell hypoxia. Symptoms of hypoglycemia usually manifest as sweating, hunger, palpitation, trembling, paleness, etc. In severe cases, mental discomfort, irritability, irritability and even coma may occur.

Currently, the diabetes market has become one of the largest disease markets in the world. In 2014, there were 420 million people diagnosed with diabetes worldwide and 590 million undiagnosed patients. The total number of people with diabetes is expected to rise to 1.5 billion in 2035. In 2015, 5 million people worldwide died of diabetes, and global diabetes treatment spending reached $673 billion, accounting for 12% of global medical spending. In 2015, the global diabetes drug market reached US$51 billion, and it is expected to reach US$116.1 billion in 2023. China is one of the countries with the highest incidence of diabetes. According to statistics, 11.6% of adults have diabetes, and the total number of patients is 110 million. In China, 13% of medical expenditures are spent on diabetes treatment, with annual expenditures of $25 billion. Diabetes medical spending is expected to reach $47 billion in 2030.

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"JDRF, U. of Toronto back smart skin patch to prevent hypoglycemia"